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Funding

How is the CSO work being funded?

Lynchburg’s CSO remediation effort is the largest capital improvement project in the City’s history. The work is expected to take 10 to 20 more years, and cost an additional $350 Million to complete.

To keep this ambitious project within a manageable scope, City officials spent more than five years negotiating with the state Department of Environmental Quality to iron out terms, conditions, and costs involved in CSO work. These negotiations culminated in an innovative consent order that was finalized in the fall of 1994.

Under the terms of this unique consent order, City officials negotiated a financing arrangement that would tie CSO expenditures to the City’s ability to pay—thereby ensuring that Lynchburg would have to spend no more than it could afford. Financing for the projects comes from government loans and grants, and partially from commercial and residential sewer bills.

Lynchburg sewer customers have already experienced the mandated rate increases in recent years. However, Lynchburg’s arrangement with the DEQ actually puts a cap on the amount that sewer bills can rise during the course of the CSO work, and protects Lynchburg from unexpected future regulations. Lynchburg is one of the first cities in the nation to negotiate such a plan.

To help mitigate the cost of the Program, we continually lobby for funding at the State and Federal government levels. In the past 12 months, we have secured a 30-yr, 0% interest loan for $13.1 Million and will be receiving a 30-yr, 0% loan for $10.1 Million in June, 2011. We have just received a $772,000 EPA grant. Click HERE for a chart showing current CSO funding amounts and sources, as well as future funding needs.